Nunn, Perdue meet with Farm Bureau | News

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US Senate candidates David Perdue and Michelle Nunn paid another visit to Macon Thursday.

The two met with the Farm Bureau's directors to talk about the Farm Bill congress passed in February. In last week's forum, Perdue said he opposed that bill, Nunn said she supports it.

The United States Farm Bill is the federal government's policy tool for managing agriculture and food policy. Congress must pass a new one every five years.

The 2014 Farm Bill authorizes $956 billion in spending over the next ten years.

There are a few differences between this year's bill, and the 2008 version. Two things Perdue and Nunn touched on were farmers' protection, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The new bill eliminates direct payments, subsidies paid to the farmers for certain crops, regardless of whether they suffered loss. However, crop insurance is still in the bill and has increased.

The SNAP program provides nutrition to millions of low income families through programs like food stamps.

Perdue says being a farm bureau member, he fully appreciates how important agriculture is to the state, but says the farm bill did not go far enough to protect farmers.

Some Republicans want to split the SNAP program out of the bill and cut it.

Perdue says, "First of all on the farm side, I don't think it went far enough to protect the interest of our farmers in Georgia. Second though, is that on the nutrition side, I felt like it needed to be bifurcated, that the problems and the abuses on the nutrition side needed to be dealt with separately, and that's what I would fight to do up there, to make sure that we get the items in the farm bill that adequately protect the farmers of Georgia, and make sure they can stay healthy and fulfill their mission."

On the other hand Michelle Nunn says she supports the bipartisan farm bill. Nunn says she admits it wasn't perfect but tells us it creates a safety net for families that need it.

She says, "It provided the critical crop insurance support, that farmers want and have said is important, invested in research and innovation, and by the way cut the deficit by a significant margin, so I think again, it is the kind of compromise that Washington needs more of and we need people who are going to embrace that kind of collaborative spirit to actually get things done and stop just fighting."

Both Nunn and Perdue say they would want to be on the Senate agricultural committee if elected. They are running for retiring Senator Saxby Chambliss' seat. The election is November 4th.